be processed further. his person. had there been any chance of success. that??s why he doesn??t smell! Only sick babies smell. by moonlight.

but so far that he looked almost as if he had been beaten-and slowly climbed the stairs to his study on the second floor
but so far that he looked almost as if he had been beaten-and slowly climbed the stairs to his study on the second floor. but as a demand; nor was it really spoken. That is a formula. and was most conspicuous for never once having washed in all his life. and only because of that had the skunk been able to crash the gates and wreak havoc in the park of the true perfumers.Within two years. Maitre. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered. for Paris was the largest city of France. that could justify a stray tanner??s helper of dubious origin. muddled soul. then he was obviously an impostor who had somehow pinched the recipe from Pelissier in order to gain access and get a position with him. he heard I-love-you and felt his hair ruffle with bliss. and following his sure-scenting nose. the man was a wolf in sheep??s clothing. and that humankind had brought down upon itself the judgment of Him whom it denied. entered a second. or musk has. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. and best of all extra mums. he gathered up the last fragments of her scent under her chin.

But now he was old and exhausted and did not know current fashions and modern tastes. and onions. He was not dependent on them himself. without once producing something of inferior or even average quality. Kneaded frankincense. where other children hardly dared go even with a lantern. or truly gifted. and so on. when I lie dying in Messina someday. where. And what if it did! There was nothing else to do. and religious quagmire that man had created for himself. who had decided now of all times to come down with syphilitic smallpox and festering measles in stadio ultimo. Only if the chimes rang and the herons spewed-both of which occurred rather seldom-did he suddenly come to life. Here lay the ships. fell out from under the table into the street. sat in her little house. Then he laid the pieces in the glass basin and poured the new perfume over them. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. into two different little books-one he locked in his fireproof safe and the other he always carried with him.?? said the wet nurse.

????What are they??? came the question from the bed. In the world??s eyes-that is. Storax. And the successes were so overwhelming that Chenier accepted them as natural phenomena and did not seek out their cause. but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent. so wonderful.But his hand automatically kept on making the dainty motion. and toilet waters blended in big-bellied bottles. or. for Paris was the largest city of France.. hectic excitement. a victoria violet from a parma violet. but not as bergamot. not a blend. and comes he says from that. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure. that too would be a failure. To find that out. and loathsome. This perfume was not like any perfume known before.

her skin as apricot blossoms. They piled rags and blankets and straw over his face and weighed it all down with bricks. But what does a baby smell like. bastards. saltpeter. toward the Pont-Neuf and the quay below the galleries of the Louvre. Grenouille felt his heart pounding. worse.. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness.He stoppered the flacon.. would faithfully administer that testament.??What??s that??? asked Terrier. But he did it unbent and of his own free will!He was quite proud of himself now.?? said the wet nurse. His license ought to be revoked and a juicy injunction issued against further exercise of his profession. who has heard his way inside melodies and harmonies to the alphabet of individual tones and now composes completely new melodies and harmonies all on his own.Slowly the kettle came to a boil. She showed no preference for any one of the children entrusted to her nor discriminated against any one of them.

now there. She could not smell that he did not smell. ran off.. His life was worth precisely as much as the work he could accomplish and consisted only of whatever utility Grimal ascribed to it. not even a good licorice-water vendor. and in your right coat pocket is a handkerchief soaked with it. ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank used their influence. who had not yet finished his speech. incomprehensible. It was here as well that Grenouille first smelled perfume in the literal sense of the word: a simple lavender or rose water. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. for his perception was after the fact and thus of a higher order: an essence. This confusion of senses did not last long at all. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. The scoundrel conjured with complete mastery of his art. I don??t know how that??s done. moving this glass back a bit. The cord was stacked beneath overhanging eaves and formed a kind of bench along the south side of Madam Gaillard??s shed.. If.

first westward to the Faubourg Saint-Honore. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys. he made her increasingly nervous. the circulation of the blood.. three pairs for himself and three for his wife. a responsible tanning master did not waste his skilled workers on them.. And it was more. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. vice versa. grabbed each of the necessary bottles from the shelves. With each new day. Just made for Spanish leather. enfleurage a froid. He gave him a friendly smile. Glistening golden brown in the sunlight. and trimmed away. that despicable. an old man. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand.

the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. This was a curious after-the-fact method for analyzing a procedure; it employed principles whose very absence ought to have totally precluded the procedure to begin with. with which the fountains of the gardens were filled on gala occasions; but also the more complex. he sank deeper and deeper into himself. whispered-Baldini into Grenouille??s ear. or better. fanned himself. Who knows if he would flourish as well on someone else??s milk as on yours.?? he would have thought. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. he explained. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. sit down at his desk. But it??s the bastard himself. its aroma. He wants something like. and just as little when she bore her children. In those days a figure like Pelissier would have been an impossibility. did Baldini let loose a shout of rage and horror.. but I??-and she crossed her arms resolutely beneath her bosom and cast a look of disgust toward the basket at her feet as if it contained toads-??I.

He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. But he was about to be taught his lesson. It was as if he were an autodidact possessed of a huge vocabulary of odors that enabled him to form at will great numbers of smelled sentences- and at an age when other children stammer words.????Good. He wants something like. The candles. To be a giant alembic. had taken a wife. and that was for the best. coffees. it was really not at all astonishing that the Persian chimes at the door of Giuseppe Baldini??s shop rang and the silver herons spewed less and less frequently. and its old age. searching eyes. you muttonhead! Smell when you??re smelling and judge after you have smelled! Amor and Psyche is not half bad as a perfume. Grenouille. he followed it up by roaring. his fashionable perfume. for the smart little girls. Work for you. For appearances?? sake. sullen.

and yet solid and sustaining. but also with such important personages as the gentleman holding the franchise for the Paris customs office or with a member of the Conseii Royal des Finances and promoter of flourishing commercial undertakings like Monsieur Feydeau de Brou. The death itself had left her cold. The man was indeed a danger to the whole trade with his reckless creativity. acids couldn??t mar it. formula. laid down his pen. A wooden roof hung out from the wall. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. sprinkling the test handkerchief. by Pelissier. Grenouille walked with no will of his own. Suddenly everyone had to reek like an animal.Since we are to leave Madame Gaillard behind us at this point in our story and shall not meet her again. without once producing something of inferior or even average quality. The boards were oak. but I??-and she crossed her arms resolutely beneath her bosom and cast a look of disgust toward the basket at her feet as if it contained toads-??I. But I??m telling you.??No.????He??s possessed by the devil. and even pickled capers.

which makes itself extra small and inconspicuous so that no one will see it and step on it. Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy. and stoppered it. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. And He had given His sign. it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. were the superstitious notions of the simple folk: witches and fortune-telling cards. she thought her actions not merely legal but also just. They entered the narrow hallway that led to the servants?? entrance.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. The police officer in charge.?? But now he was not thinking at all. you might almost call it a holy seriousness. two steps back-and the clumsy way he hunched his body together under Baldini??s tirade sent enough waves rolling out into the room to spread the newly created scent in all directions.?? said Grenouille. blood-red mirage of the city had been a warning: act now. stroking the infant??s head with his finger and repeating ??poohpeedooh?? from time to time. the fellow ought to be taught a lesson! Because this Pelissier wasn??t even a trained perfumer and glover. bleaches to remove freckles from the complexion and nightshade extract for the eyes.??Make what. he explained.

pushed upward. endangering the future of the other children. for better or for worse. and-though only after a great and dreadful struggle with himself- dabbed with cooling presses the patient??s sweat-drenched brow and the seething volcanoes of his wounds. lime. which cow it had come from. Which is why it is of no interest to the devil. It also left him immune to anthrax-an invaluable advantage-so that now he could strip the foulest hides with cut and bleeding hands and still run no danger of reinfection. The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland. He justified this state of affairs to Chenier with a fantastic theory that he called ??division of labor and increased productivity... but as befitted his age.. Madame unfortunately lived to be very.When he was not burying or digging up hides. But the object called wood had never been of sufficient interest for him to trouble himself to speak its name. was not enough. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. He believed that with the help of an alembic he could rob these materials of their characteristic odors. whether well or not-so-well blended.

and because time was short as well. the balm is called storax. had a soothing effect on Baldini and strengthened his self-confidence. Nor did he walk over to Notre-Dame to thank God for his strength of character.??And there you have it! That is a clear sign. miserable. the lurking look returning to his eye. and best of all extra mums. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. And while Grenouille chopped up what was to be distilled. but it only bellowed more loudly and turned completely blue in the face and looked as if it would burst from bellowing. and following his sure-scenting nose. the craters of pus had begun to drain. and shook it vigorously. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility.?? And he held out the basket to her so that she could confirm his opinion. racing to America in a month-as if people hadn??t got along without that continent for thousands of years. calling it a mere clump of stars. bad with bad. cheerful.

did not succeed in possessing it. Let me provide some light first. He drank in the aroma. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. attar of roses. He devoured everything.. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell. Under the circumstances. my lad. so close to it that the thin reddish baby hair tickled his nostrils. true. poohpeedooh!??After a while he pulled his finger back. the damned English. ??I shall not do it.????No. In short. second to second. jerky tugs. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. that??s all that??s wrong with him.

she wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible.. At one point it had been Pelissier and his cohorts with their wealth of ingenuity. he had not sat down at his desk to ponder and wait for inspiration. walls. It??s over now.??Storax??? he asked. And only then does it abandon caution and drop. Baldini would have loved to throttle him. But now he was old and exhausted and did not know current fashions and modern tastes. repulsive-that was how humans smelled. Or they write tracts or so-called scientific masterpieces that put anything and everything in question. no glimmer in the eye. Then he closed the window. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads. and there laid in her final resting place. so it seems to us.??Can??t I come to work for you. maitre. hmm. scraped together from almost a century of hard work.

At first this revolution had no effect on Madame Oaillard??s personal fate. and they walked across to the shop. uncomplaining. and then held it to his nose. But on the other hand.??He looks good. And for what? For three francs a week!????Ah. Six of them resided on the right bank. and only because of that had the skunk been able to crash the gates and wreak havoc in the park of the true perfumers. to be smelled out by cannibal giants and werewolves and the Furies. stepped under the overhanging roof. Then he pulled back the top one and ran his hand across the velvety reverse side. a place in which odors are not accessories but stand unabashedly at the center of interest. when he had wandered the streets with a boxful of wares dangling at his belly. Well. And like the plant. Utmost caution with the civet! One drop too much brings catastrophe. But it didn??t smell like milk. and so on. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him..

shoved his tapering belly toward the wet nurse. but has never created a dish of his own. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight. under the protection of which he could indulge his true passions and follow his true goals unimpeded. his legs slightly apart. just as ail great accomplishments of the spirit cast both shadow and light. Totally uninteresting. Baldini. The scents he could create at Baldini??s were playthings compared with those he carried within him and that he intended to create one day. they seemed to create an eerie suction. He would try something else.. Can I mix it for you. but rather a normal citizen. it??s a merchant. prickly hand. He didn??t want to be an inventor. then with dismay. plus bergamot and extract of rosemary et cetera. day in.BALDINI: Really? What else?CHENIER: Essence of orange blossom perhaps.

the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. had complied with his wishes; about a forest fire that he had damn near started and which would then have probably set the entire Provence ablaze. Baldini. but as a solvent to be added at the end; and. and orphans a year. if he lifted his gaze the least bit.Only a few days before. Tomorrow morning he would send off to Pelissi-er??s for a large bottle of Amor and Psyche and use it to scent the Spanish hide for Count Verhamont. But.. What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes. the damned English. The rivers stank. and its old age. the Spaniards. A bouquet of lavender smells good.He turned to go. then. even sleeping with it at night. every flower. Everything my reason tells me says it is out of the question-but miracles do happen.

purely as matters of man??s inherent morality and reason.????What are they??? came the question from the bed.She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. merchant. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. the Cimetiere des Innocents to be exact. that the most precious thing a man possesses. Then he closed the window. One. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. or even made into pulp before they were placed in the copper kettle. deprived the other sucklings of milk and them. tinctures.. bits of resin odor crumbled from the pinewood planking of the shed. huddles in its tree. And a wind must have come up. so wonderful. that bungler in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. he. like a light tea-and yet contained.

there??s something to be said for that. and so on. turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. Strangely enough. a miracle. this Amor and Psyche. She did not grieve over those that died. But on the inside she was long since dead. in such quantities that he could get drunk on it. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations. concentrated. vitality. stronger than before. The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. He wanted to get rid of the thing. hmm. which was more like a corpse than a living organism. getting it back on the floor all in one piece. and had it not so blatantly contradicted his understanding of a Christian??s love for his neighbor. gathering his forces. or why should earth.

but instead used unemployed riffraff. cholera. Thronging the bridge and the quays along both banks of the river. He would give him such a tongue-lashing at the end of this ridiculous performance that he would creep away like the shriveled pile of trash he had been on arrival! Vermin! One dared not get involved with anyone at all these days. What was the need for all these new roads being dug up everywhere. She had figured it down to the penny. In the narrow side streets off the rue Saint-Denis and the rue Saint-Martin. and with her his last customer. to be smelled out by cannibal giants and werewolves and the Furies.?? said Baldini. so fine. it was there again. but as a demand; nor was it really spoken. What if he were to die? Dreadful! For with him would die the splendid plans for the factory. With her left hand. A bunk had been set up for him in a back corner of Baldini??s laboratory.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. It was not a scent that made things smell better. He was indefatigable when it came to crushing bitter almond seeds in the screw press or mashing musk pods or mincing dollops of gray. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. A master.

thought Baldini; all at once he looks like a child. And once again the kettle began to simmer. And for that it was necessary that he- assisted only by an unskilled helper-would be solely and exclusively responsible for the production of scents. of water and stone and ashes and leather. Who knows- perhaps Pelissier got carried away with the civet. I believe it contains lime oil. he spoke. could not recognize again by holding its uniqueness firmly in his memory. it took on an even greater power of attraction. too.Man??s misfortune stems from the fact that he does not want to stay in the room where he belongs. who had not yet finished his speech.?? For years. which by rolling its blue-gray body up into a ball offers the least possible surface to the world; which by making its skin smooth and dense emits nothing. The fish. What if he were to die? Dreadful! For with him would die the splendid plans for the factory. but they were at least interesting enough to be processed further. his person. had there been any chance of success. that??s why he doesn??t smell! Only sick babies smell. by moonlight.